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LESSON 1
Seting up your Home Studio
The following are essentials in decent home recording setups
-PC
-Soundcard
-Mixer
-Microphones
-recording software
-Monitors
-headphone
-a spare room
P.C.
In a big studio like mine, the mixer is the heart of the setup. In a home recording setup, the computer filles this space. Your computer needs to be good enough that it's not going to blow up, or freeze while your in the middle of recording. Any new PC bought from a shop nowdays is ussually pretty good. I suggest spending about $600 on the PC, unless of course you have one already!
SoundCard
The souncard you choose really depends on how many different sources your going to record at the one time. Soundblaster make really great cards for home recording. If your only recording one thing at a time, then you can use the sound card that comes with the PC. If your a 3-4-5 piece band then I would sugest the Sound Blaster Audigi 2 platnum external card. They Have 5 inputs and are great for bands!
Microphones
Depending on what your recording, a studio needs a good microphone, or several good microphones. I will run down different models and how to use them effectively in a later lesson. Just to give you an idea, you can spend anywhere beween 50 and 700 dollars.
Mixer
A mixer you can live without, but they are truly very, very, helful. The mixer is always conected to the sound card, so you can plug whatever you recording into the mixer and ajust the eq and input level on the mixer. Mixers can also be very handy to record drums, for example, you plug all the mics on the kit (snare, kick, toms etc) into the mixer, adjust the levels and eq and then all the mics come out as one stereo signal, therfore only taking up two of your inputs.
Recording Software
There so much recording software out there today that its not funny! The best program by far for begginer recordists (is that a word?). The only problem it wont record from multiple sources. Enter Cubase. Cubasis takes a very, very long time to figure out, but once you have, it is well worth it. Other programs include cakewalk, fruity loopz 4, sonar, logic. Its really up to the user to decide which one they like. You can download them all from Kazaa.
Monitors
Monitors is a fancy word for studio speakers. Monitors arn't just like your average CD player speakers. CD player speakers are designed to make the music sound as good as possible. Thats not what you want. Thats why studio monitors are designed extremely nuetral, so that they play exactly whats coming out of the computer. This prevents the following scenario:
Jonny Producer Dude records a local rock band. This is his first time he's recorded a band because he's just set up his studio. Johny has just spent heaps of hard earned cash on gear for his studio, but Jonny doesn't know ****. Jonny and the band have spent a week on the new demo. They are listening to the songs through the monitors, which just so happen to be his CD player speakers, and it sounds awsome! The band pay jonny lots of thier hard earned cash, get thier CD and go home. On the way home, Bill Drummer, and Frank singer decide they are going to put on the CD. It starts playing but it sounds like ****. Frank and Bill turn around and drive back to johnnys house and lets just say he wont produce another CD in a while! If your music sounds good on real monitors, it'll sound good on any CD Player! Behringer Truth monitors rock!
Headphones
You NEED these. In my studio I have 5 pairs of headphones. You need these. There is nothing worse than having a great vocal track ruined because the vocal mic picked up the monitors! the soloution: headphones! Not Earplugs, Headphones! When your recording something, the only thing the mic should hear is the thing you want on that track.
A Room
You might say yeah whatever I can do it in my garage, or bedroom, and thats fine... If you want to be P***ed of while you record and p***ed of when your doing stuff in your room. Besides it being anoying trying to record while theres mess everywhere, acoustics are very important also. So a room that you can do stuff to the walls in is great (i also wouldn't want to live in a bedroom that has blankets hanging on the walls!
I'll go through how to treat a room for acoustics in another lesson...
Conclusion
So thats what youll need!
Please comment on the lessons and ask questions and i have a go at answering them!
If you want you cant tell me to shut my big mouth too.
Next lesson, I'll go through how to connect the studio together, and some basics on how to get is running. Also I'll go through acoustic design and studio layout
Have fun buying all your Gear!
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